AGM & Committee roles by Peter Maddison

The AGM and Committee roles

Peter Maddison

When it became apparent that we would not be able hold the AGM in October 2020 a new date in March 2021 was booked. Martin Warren was able to rearrange his travel plans in order to speak to us, and all looked well. It was not too long, however, before it was seen that the COVID-19 threat would extend into 2021 and for us to get together in March would not be possible. A new date, Saturday 30th October 2021, was confirmed and I do hope that we will be able to meet together then, not just for an AGM, but also to hear Martin’s talk and for us once again, over a cup of tea and cake, to be able to chat with one another on subjects Lepidoptera.

New County Recorder

We welcome James Corton as our new County Butterfly Recorder. James has been a Branch member and has keenly recorded butterflies, particularly in the north-east of the county, for a number of years. The contact email for James is: suffolkbutterflyrecorder@gmail.com

Although Bill Stone stepped aside from the role at the end of the 2020 season, COVID-19 restrictions have not made the handover an easy one, so during the transition period this year Bill will be working closely with James.

As a consequence of the AGM delay my report for 2019-20 and the accounts for the year ending March 2020 appear in this issue of the Argus. I’m delighted and thankful that the committee agreed to remain in post, although over the recent winter period we were sad to hear that Helen Saunders had made the decision to resign on health grounds. Whilst we were working at Purdis, Helen was our Volunteers’ Coordinator and did a wonderful job in mustering the team and keeping an eye on the essentials from the first aid kit to baked potatoes! We hope that Helen makes a good recovery and that we will soon see her out in the field. Steve Woolnough, who joined us a year ago as our Moth Liaison Officer and became a committee member, has resigned from the committee, but remains as Moth Liaison Officer. We thank Bill for the superb way in which he has collated and analysed records during his time as Recorder. The number of records received has increased hugely since he took on the role in 2013 and during the last BNM five-year recording period, thanks to the many field recorders amongst our membership that Bill has encouraged, counts were made in 98.7% of the tetrads in Suffolk. Each year has culminated in Bill writing a detailed report of the county’s butterflies which has been published in the Argus and in full in the SNS Transactions.

Branch Income and Expenditure

Due to a technical failure, the accounts were not available in time of printing.